Bringing Drawings into ARCHIBUS Projects

You may already have facility information in CAD drawings that you produced with other packages, such as AutoCAD, Visio, or Actrix. You can use these CAD drawings with the ARCHIBUS Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD or the DWG Editor, as long as the drawings are in .DWG format.

For example, you may have received from your builder or landlord a CAD drawing that outlines a floor's walls, structural columns, and gross area outline. Using this drawing's information as a starting point, you can now add your ARCHIBUS facilities data.

To include an existing drawing as part of an ARCHIBUS project, open the ARCHIBUS project and then access the Drawing List dialog. Click Add and the program presents the Drawing Properties dialog box, which prompts you for information that ARCHIBUS needs about your drawing, including its default space hierarchy values and a descriptive title to display on the Drawing List dialog box.

When you process the dialog box, the program adds the drawing to the project's Drawing List.

Note:You can set or change the information for a drawing at any time by selecting its entry from the Drawing List and clicking Properties to access the Drawing Properties dialog box.

To bring a non-project drawing into ARCHIBUS

Open the project in which you want to use this drawing.
Move the DWG-format drawing to your project directory.
From the ARCHIBUS Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD or the DWG Editor, select the Drawings tab from the Explorer panel.
On the Drawing List, click Add. The program presents the Drawing Properties dialog box. Complete the options as follows:

File Name -- Browse for the drawing you want to add to the project.
Title — Enter a descriptive name. The program uses this name in the Drawing List dialog box and on reports
Building Code — This option specifies the building in which the content of this drawing resides. Click on the ellipses button to access a list of defined buildings. If you have not yet defined your buildings, you can choose the Add New button to define one now.
Floor Code — This option specifies the floor that this drawing represents. Click on the ellipses button to access a list of floors defined for the building selected above. If you have not yet defined your floors, you can click the Add New button to define a floor for the selected building now.

Note The Building Code and Floor Code options presented by this dialog form the drawing's default space hierarchy values. For more information on space hierarchy values, see Using Default Space Hierarchy Values.

You can also complete the following optional information:

Units — Enter whether the drawing's units are Metric or imperial.
If the drawing is Imperial, the units are shown as Inches.
If the drawing is metric, the units are shown as Meters, Centimeters, or Millimeters. If you choose Metric, select the measurement unit (meters, millimeters, or centimeters) for one drawing unit.
Enter the height and width used for reporting for both letter and tabloid sizing.

Click OK to process the Drawing Properties dialog box and the program adds the drawing to the project's Drawing List. You can then click Open to display this drawing in the ARCHIBUS Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD or the DWG Editor.